In an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court, FBI special agent Daron Cheney says Joe Rickey Hundley, of Hayden Idaho, slapped the boy during a flight from Minneapolis on Feb. 8.

The child's mother, 33-year-old Jessica Bennett, of Minneapolis, told authorities the boy was crying as the plane came in for landing. Bennett says Hundley was sitting next to her and slapped the boy in his face, causing a scratch under his right eye. She says Hundley used a racial epithet while demanding her to quiet the boy - who began crying louder after the Hundley slapped him.